This article is for those of you who have to deal with the madness that is OU parking. For those of you who don't know, OU is an amazing in all aspects except for its' parking system. Parking on campus may be one of the most stressful challenges an OU student faces each day. With that being said, I have devised the ultimate guide on how to park at the University of Oklahoma:
1. Leave at least an hour, maybe even 2 hours, before your class so you have enough time to complete the following steps. ![]()
2. Start by searching for spots closest to your class going down each and every row until you work your way back to the furthest lot.
3. Check the OU Innovate app to confirm that their are no spots available in any of the lots.
4. Go down every single row in hopes of finding a spot anyways.
5. Strategically beat other cars searching for a spot to the next row.
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6. Pray you don't get in a wreck because there are no driving rules in the OU parking lots.
7. Cry when you see the car in front of you find a spot.
8. Try to figure out how you can get around them to steal their spot.![]()
9. Contemplate going home and skipping class.
10. Go to the faculty lot and find a spot fairly easy, then pull in and put your car in park. ![]()
11. Notice the parking attendant giving out tickets to other cars, then move your car and head back towards the permitted parking lots.
12. Swear that you are going to write President David Boren a strongly worded letter about the lack of parking for students.
13. Find someone at the entrance of the lot and stalk them all the way to their car.
14. Once said person you are stalking in your vehicle gets to their car, immediately put your blinker on to publicly claim it's your spot.![]()
15. Hope that no one steals your spot you you just claimed.
16. Pull into the spot and put your car in park and celebrate. ![]()
17. Look at the clock and panic because class either starts in 2 minutes or started 20 minutes ago.![]()
18. Get out of your car and run to your class across campus.
In all seriousness, I truly hope OU finishes that gigantic and magical parking garage that they've been promising to students since my freshman year back in 2014. Lets hope once they are finished with it, the parking system won't be such an issue. College students have enough to stress about, finding a parking spot to get to class should not be one of them.
